The brand new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions introduced on Monday can be found in a brand new House Black end when configured with M3 Professional or M3 Max chips. Notably, Apple says this end options an “anodization seal” to “drastically scale back fingerprints.”
Apple already made the MacBook Air accessible in a darker Midnight end, and it’s thought-about by many to be a fingerprint magnet. Based mostly on hands-on movies of the brand new MacBook Professional fashions shared following Apple’s occasion, the brand new anti-fingerprint seal does look like an enchancment in comparison with the MacBook Air, however extra testing is required.
Within the hands-on video under, The Verge‘s Dan Seifert mentioned “I obtained like 30 seconds to the touch the brand new House Black mannequin, and yeah, I suppose there are fewer fingerprints on it, however we’ll actually must see the way it holds up in the actual world.”
Six Colours editor-in-chief Jason Snell mentioned the House Black end is “typically extra immune to fingerprints,” however he mentioned some fingerprints are nonetheless to be anticipated. He additionally mentioned House Black is extra like a “darkish grey” as an alternative of precise black:
I obtained my greasy monkey paws on a House Black laptop computer and may report that Apple’s pretty much as good as its phrase within the sense that it appears typically extra immune to fingerprints and different smudges.
However I do not wish to exaggerate this characteristic: you possibly can nonetheless see fingerprints. They simply aren’t as distinguished. It is a progressive enchancment over one thing just like the Midnight M2 MacBook Air, however it’s not a cure-all.
Equally, I have to warn you to not get too enthusiastic about Apple lastly making a black MacBook Professional. House Black just isn’t really as black as house. It is a darkish grey. Sure, it is appreciably darker than the House Grey on the present MacBook Professionals (and the brand new base mannequin), however it’s nonetheless a shimmery metallic grey. Followers of Darth Vader stand down.
One other hands-on video from Brian Tong:
MobileSyrup‘s Patrick O’Rourke mentioned “I’ve very greasy fingers and spent a number of minutes within the hands-on space making an attempt to smudge the ‘House Black’ color — I could not.”
Gizmodo‘s Kyle Barr mentioned “I did have the possibility to place my grubby palms on the latest M3-powered MacBook Professionals, and whereas I did not see many leftover smears on the floor, it did not take lengthy for Apple employees to swoop in with microfiber fabric in hand to take away any wayward stains,” so testing shall be wanted exterior of a managed surroundings.
XDA‘s Brady Snyder on House Black and fingerprints:
Although the adjustments to the M3 MacBook Professional have been principally inside, there is a new colour referred to as House Black. It appears to be like higher in particular person than it did in Apple’s unveiling, however it’s nonetheless not black. I would evaluate it to the black colour of the iPhone 5 or the iPad mini 2. It is nonetheless nowhere close to the black colour we noticed on the polycarbonate MacBooks within the mid-2000s. As you possibly can see within the images under, this MacBook can look lighter and darker primarily based on lighting situations, very similar to Apple’s Midnight colorway. Nonetheless, in comparison with that colour, the MacBook Professional does appear to be much less of a fingerprint magnet.
The brand new MacBook Professional fashions can be found to order now, and most configurations will start arriving to prospects and launch in shops on Tuesday, November 7. Configurations with the M3 Max chip launch later in November.